Mike McGovern, Past Rotary International Vice Present, Chair of the Nominating Committee for RI President, Chair of Rotary International’s Polio Plus Committee, and member of the South Portland/Cape Elizabeth Rotary Club, was our guest and speaker on January 29.
 
Poliomyelitis is a highly infectious disease that most commonly affects children under the age of 5. Mike recounted meeting a young girl in India during a speaking engagement a couple of years ago.  He didn’t understand at first why she was there, until she was introduced as the last child in India to have contracted polio. He told us that he was moved to have met her and that seeing her brought this fight against polio into clear focus. Fortunately, she had no visible remaining signs of the disease.
 
 
He went on to remind us that during our first polio fundraising campaign that began in 1985, Rotary had a goal to raise $120M to demonstrate to the world that we were serious about helping eradicate this disease.   Rotarians blew by that goal, raising $247M.  In 1998, there were an estimated 350,000 cases in 125 countries.  Now, in each of the last four years there have been under 100 cases in the world, and in fewer villages than ever before. In 2018, there were 33 cases identified, but these were found in only one small area of Pakistan and a couple of small areas of Afghanistan.
 
Much of the funding to continue the fight come from the CDC, USAID, and from many countries like Canada, Britain, and United Arab Emirates - and this funding is not just fighting polio. The infrastructure we helped put in place was key to fighting a recent Ebola outbreak.   Rotarians continue to contribute through donations, but also by lobbying governments to continue their support. In addition, there are Rotarians on the ground in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Rotary pays stipends to about 150,000 polio workers for supplemental immunization activities (SIA) in up to 60 high-risk countries.  Sadly, 43 polio workers and security personnel have been killed in the last three years in this region.
 
Mike told us that the key to the final eradication of polio is the Taliban. Rotary is working with the government of Qatar to help win the hearts and minds in those communities.  It is estimated that there are 1M children who are not reachable in three provinces. Polio workers have no access since door-to-door vaccinations were suspended.  To be fully immunized, each child needs 2 drops of vaccine delivered at three different times.  Once the last case is identified, we must continue vaccinating and monitoring for three more years before WHO can certify that the world is polio-free.
 
For more information: https://www.endpolio.org/
 
Mike Signs a book for Walker Library
as Steve Rand looks on